Sunday, April 29, 2012

New Patio Umbrella

This weekend my son pressure washed my deck and I am getting the itch to get my plants outside and do some digging in the dirt. I have a little “sitting room” on my deck and always have an umbrella out there to keep the spot cool and shady. This is what my umbrella looked like this spring!

I bought this umbrella for $2 at an auction last spring. My previous umbrella had been the victim of high winds, so I found this one cheap…I disliked like the green but at that price, I could live with it! So…anyway it sat out all winter and the fabric was falling apart, but the frame is still great! I thought it might be worth replacing the fabric, but I couldn’t decide what kind of fabric to use. I priced fabric and found it would take too many yards to make this a reasonably priced redo.

Well, I was at Home Depot and saw a drop cloth! I don’t know why I had not thought of a drop cloth before. I cut apart the old umbrella and used it as a pattern to make the new one. I measured, cut and sewed. I even brought the umbrella base in because it was raining and I wanted to work on it at night. The first time I sewed it all together, I realized it was too loose at the top, so…off it came and I drug it back to the sewing machine and adjusted the top portion.

Much better! I was satisfied! Now I wanted it to be waterproof, so I used two cans of Scotchguard fabric protector to waterproof the fabric.

So yep, I spent the weekend with a patio umbrella open in my living room! Just keeping it real…

This whole project cost me $21 for the 9 X 12 drop cloth and the Scotchguard was $7 for the two cans. Everything else I had. I used quilting thread for the seams and serged every seam. Hopefully it will hold up to the weather and sunshine!

Genius! I'm fanatical about reusing whatever still has even a little life in it. This was a wonderful way to make use of a perfectly good umbrella frame. And drop cloth fabric is a favorite of mine to work with. Nice!

Love it! I have a umbrella that I thought about using a dropcloth to replace, but wasn't sure how difficult it would be. Mine is a green stripe that I picked up at a garage sale too. I hate the fabric, but it is a solid wood umbrella. Do you have any other tips?

I'm so impressed! I love drop cloth decorating and this is amazing. You're going to be featured in tonight's link party. Stop by and pick up a feature button! Going to pin this as well. Thanks for linking up to Share the Love Wednesday!Mary

I love how this turned out! It's so much better than buying a new one because those things are expensive! I am visiting from the One Artsy Mama Craft Contest. I am a new follower! Hope you will stop http://garagesalesrus.blogspot.com/ and do the same!